Well-drilling device.



G. R. WATSON.

WELL DRILLING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED APR.8. I916.

Patented N01 7, 1916.

Fig. 1.

Inventor, GzrgeJiWasan, by Attorne Fig. 4?.

GEORGE R. WATSON, OEWATERLOO, IOWA.

' WELL-DRILLING DEVICE.

incense.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. a. rare.

Application filed April 8, 1916. Serial No. 89,776.

To all to 7mm it may concern Be it known that I, GEORGE it. l/VA'rsoN, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of Waterloo, Blackhawk county, Iowa, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in ell-Drilling Devices, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements of devices used in connection with well drilling machines for the purpose of eliminating the shock and vibration which well drilling equipment is subjected to through the use of steel or non-elastic drilling cable; to eliminate the use of fiber cable as a tool carrying cable and to provide an elasticity proportionate to that obtained through the use of fiber cable, and to further provide for a quicker reciprocating motion, regard less of the amount of non-elastic cable used, than is possible in using a fiber or elastic cable, the elongation of which reduces the reciprocation of the tools in proportion to the amount of cable used. This object I have accomplished by the means which are hereinafter described and claimed, and which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure l is a side elevation of part of a well-drilling machine, including my improved device. Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the derrick and the supporting elements for the tool-carrying cable mounted thereon,

with parts sectioned or broken away. Fig. 3 is a perspective detail view of the upper part of the derrick and cable supportingmeans, with parts broken or sectioned away.

Similar numerals of reference denote corresponding parts throughout the several views.

Referring first to said Fig. 1, the numeral 14 denotes the rear part of the frame of a welldrilling machine mounted on carryingwheels. On the rear cross-bar 2 of the frame is erected a'derrick 1 formed of two spaced standards connected by ladderrungs. Channels 3 are secured on the inner opposed faces of the standards 1 toward their upper ends to receive a longitudinally slidable block 4 in whose hollow a large sheave 6 is rotatably mounted. Like small sheaves 7 are rotatably mounted in bearings on the upper ends of the standards to rotate at right angles to the sheave 6. The block 4 is channeled about its sides and lower end, the latter being rounded, to provide a slideway for a chain 8 which extends thence about the sheaves 7to depend therefrom along the outer sides of said standards and whose ends are connected to like short depending pieces of cable 9. These cables are of fiber, of equal size and length, and connected to eye-bolts lOat their lower ends, which in turn are adjustably secured in certain ones of longitudinally alined orifices 12 in spaced longitudinal bars 11 mounted on the lower parts of the outer sides of said standards 1. A metal cable 13 is passed about the large sheave 6, and has one end wound about a winding drum (not shown) on said machine frame let, and has on its other depending end a boring tool 18 of the usual type. This tool is raised and lowered as the cable 18 is gradually unreeled from said winding-drum, by means of the impinging against it in regular strokes of a crank 17, carrying an anti-friction roller, the cable being carried over an idler 15 mounted on an arm 16 on said frame 14.

It is well known in the art of well-drilling,

that a fiber cable is very short lived, because of the great frictional wear caused all along its length by its numerous repeated forward and back movements over the sheaves on the machine, while acted'upon by said crank. Nevertheless, the fiber cable is considered superior in operation over a steel cable, although the more refractory material of the latter confers upon it a longevity of four or five times greater than the fiber cable. The fiber cable stretches yieldingly somewhat at each dropping of the heavy boring tool permitting the tool to fall with a maximum 'momentum as compared with the rigid unyielding or inelastic structure of the steel cable. Also, the rebound of the tool is deadened better by the more compressible substance of the fiber cable. The greater longevity and cheapness of the wire cable 13 when used as in my improved device in combination with sections of yieldable fiber cable 9, secures also the benefit of a fiber cable, since the fiber sections 9 may stretch, and may be adjustably secured from time to time along the bars 11, and the chain 8 which links them together, by sliding in its slideway in the block l, automatically equalizes any inequality in the stretching of the cables 9. These short cables may be replaced at small cost, but will befree from frictional wear, hence longer lived than if passed about sheaves. Attention is also called to the fact that when a fiber tool-carrying cable is employed, after considerable use the stretching or yielding of the cable is V such, when much cable is paid out, that there is much amplitude of rebound of the tool. This necessarlly reduces the average number of reciprocations of the tool, but when a wire fiber cables which I employ are of suitable lengths to allow the requisite amount of stretching thereof, in use, which will only be suflicient to provide the wire cable with proper resiliency as hereinbefore stated.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is z 1. In combination, a wire tool-carrying cable, and a body over which it is dependingly movable, a support upon which said body is movable, and yieldable cables connected to said support, passed thereover, and linked together, with the said body supported movably at their linked ends.

2. In combination, a wire tool-carrying cable, and a yieldable cable supporting same while permitting unlimited longitudinal movements to and fro of the wire cable.

3. In combination, a wire tool-carrying cable, yieldable cable sections, and an unyielding linking connection between adjacent ends of the yieldable cables, the other ends of the latter being anchored, with the linking-connection thereof supporting the wire cable while permitting unlimited longitudinal movements of the wire cable.

4. In combination, an unyielding cable, a yieldable cable, and supporting-means on which both are mounted and to which the yieldable cable is secured, the unyielding cable being freely movable longitudinally, and the yielding cable sustaining stresses of impacts imparted thereto by the unyielding cable.

5. In combination, a derrick, a block slid ingly mounted in the upper end thereof, a sheave in said block, an unyielding cable reeved over said block, a boringtool suspended from a depending end of said cable, means for longitudinally shifting said cable to and fro, an inelastic flexible linking means passed about said blbck and about the derrick to be supported thereon and depend therefrom, sheaves on said derrick OVer which said linking means is passed, and a relatively short length of yieldable cable connected to each end of said linking means and adjustably secured at their lower ends to the lower part. of the derrick.

Signed at Waterloo, Iowa, this 25th day of March, 1916.

GEORGE R. WATSON.

G. G. KENNEDY.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G. 

